The Unknown Influence We Have
by Hypnotoad76
Summary: Annie learns how much she means to someone


**Hello. This is my first fanfic. I've fallen in love with the show Community so I decided to try writing a fanfic for it. For my first attempt I wrote one without dialogue in case the characters sounded OOC. I got the idea from a news article I read, and because I love Annie.**

**Takes place in season 2 after Celebrity Pharmacology 212**

As Annie walked around her apartment she thought about the play and how miraculous it was that it had all worked out. After Pierce essentially took over the play she thought she had turned the entire middle school onto drugs. But luckily Chang stepped in and saved the day at the last minute. While she was still creeped out by the man, she had to admit he could be there for someone if he truly put his mind to it. Hopefully this would encourage Shirley to give him a chance if her baby turned out to be Chang's.

She thought about the end of the play, when everyone had taken their bow. The kids had cheered for Pierce, but quieted down when Chang jumped in front of him and screamed about eating their parents. He really did a number on them. At the last minute Jeff had insisted she join them out there since, for better or worse, it was her production and she should have her moment. But while it was nice it didn't really matter. None of those kids knew who she was. And in the end she didn't mind if they wondered why she was up there with the cast. All that mattered was that hopefully she had gotten her message across, and could keep them from going through the hell she herself had gone through.

Since she didn't have any school work to do she sat down and opened her newspaper. She didn't usually read it (most times she went on-line for the news), but someone had left a copy in the cafeteria and she grabbed it as she was leaving. She leafed through the paper reading articles that interested her when she suddenly stopped and stared at the print in surprise. Her name was in the paper.

As she looked at her name in the first line of the article in the human interests section she figured it couldn't be referring to her. There were lots of girls named Annie. And Edison wasn't that uncommon a surname. So chances are there were plenty of other girls out there with the name Annie Edison. But even so, she now had to read it.

The article was an open letter, entitled HOW A STRANGER SAVED MY LIFE, by Henry Vines.

_I never personally knew Annie Edison when we were in high school together. To me her existence was known due to whispered gossip and taunts, none of which were anything pleasant to hear. People said that she was stuck up, she was an egg head, she was a know it all, she was ugly, and many more insults I won't dare immortalize in print. Looking back I wish I had stuck up for her instead of just standing by and ignoring the malice she endured. While I never participated in this cruelty, I didn't defend her against the constant bullying she put up with. There's a famous quote that goes "Evil will prevail when good men do nothing." That's very true in this case. _

_Then during the end of high school I heard a rumor that I thought couldn't possibly be true. That Annie Edison was addicted to pills and went to rehab. But for once the rumor cycle was right, for this turned out to be true. While I was sad for her, since I didn't really know her I didn't feel too bad. It was like hearing a tragedy on the news. While you generally feel bad, unless you know the person you can only feel so much. _

_After graduating high school I started my freshman year at Colorado State University. It was a chance to cut lose, live on my own, party, and most of all drink. _

_Drinking was not exactly new to me. In high school I spend every weekend at some party guzzling from a beer bong or impressing girls by doing keg stands (and keg flips until a jock hurt himself and lost his scholarship.) But once I started college it accelerated at an alarming rate. Four to six drinks in one night turned into ten to twelve drinks. Drinking every weekend turned into every night. Just drinking at night morphed into drinking first thing in the morning, before class, after class, guzzling water bottles filled with vodka during lectures. To say I was drunk all the time is not that far from the truth. People noticed that I had a problem and tried to talk to me, but I just yelled at them to leave it alone. Everyone drinks in college. There's nothing wrong with it. _

_While most people do drink in college, most don't let it control their lives to where that's all they want to do. By the end of the school year it had finally caught up with me. I had barely scraped by to pass my first semester classes. By the time the second semester was ending I couldn't even remember what classes I was taking anymore. Three weeks before the semester ended I was kicked out of school. _

_I should have been concerned that I was kicked out of school. That I had wasted the money my parents had saved to sent me to college. That I had to go home and see the looks of disappointment on everyone's faces. But when I left none of those thoughts crossed my mind. All I could think about was now I would have more time to drink. _

_Two weeks after I had been expelled I came home one night to find the living room filled with people. Not only were my parents and brother there, but also my grandparents, aunt, a number of friends, even a few Colorado state professors. They had staged an intervention on my behalf. Everyone said how concerned they were for my well being and wanted me to get help for my drinking problem. I screamed at them that I didn't have a problem and ran out of the house. _

_Three days later I woke up in an abandoned building surrounded by liquor bottles. My entire face hurt and I thought my head was going to split open. I had no idea where I was or how I had even gotten there. In fact I had no memory of anything that happened after I left home. As I dragged myself off the floor I saw a mirror hanging on the cracked wall. When I looked at myself I thought it had to be a nightmare. _

_My entire face was swollen. I had a broken nose, two black eyes and a bruised jaw. To this day I have no idea what caused these injuries. My hair was encased in a sticky clear substance. My skin was a dull yellow and I had a sickly hollow look to me. I was staring right back at a alcoholic in crises. _

_As I stood there the name Annie Edison ran through my head. I hadn't given the girl a second thought since high school. But now at my worst I suddenly found myself thinking about her. And as I did I remembered another whispered rumor I had heard, one so shocking I only believed it because everything else I had heard about the rehab story had turned out to be true. That when Annie's addiction came out her parents wanted to ignore it and pretend everything was normal. But instead she chose to get help and put herself in rehab. _

_Thinking about this I completely broke down, hysterically sobbing. This girl had had no one in her corner, no one to turn to. And yet somehow she found the strength within herself to pull herself up and confront the monster that had taken over her life. She risked everything to save herself, and she did it on her own. And here I was, with a room literally full of people who wanted to help me, and I was too selfish to listen. If she could save herself when she had no one there for her, I could be brave enough to do the same. _

_That night I came home to my parents and two days later I was put in rehab. It was in no way easy. First I went through the hell of withdrawal. Then came learning how to live without alcohol. I screamed at the counselors, fought them at every turn. But I never gave up. Every time I came close to leaving I thought about Annie and would repeat my mantra, "She went through this by herself. She had it much worse than you do." _

_My parents and other family members visited every three days, and I had friends visit me every Saturday. Knowing they were there for me was a huge factor in getting through it all. But even their influence wasn't as consistent as my faceless, invisible guardian angel. _

_I left the program after two months, and am glad to say I've been clean and sober since. While there are times I badly crave a drink (it's something I'm going to have to live with for the rest of my life), I've learned to push it aside when they come up. I go to AA meetings and am figuring out how to move on with my life. _

_After I left I decided to look up my savior. I'm happy to say that Annie Edison has also moved on with her life. She's attending college and has already improved her school in several ways, such as bringing a win home for the debate team and co-organizing an STD awareness fair. Just from the little I read about her I can see she's going to help many others in her lifetime. And to those who dared call her ugly, all I'll say is you'd be insanely jealous to look at her now. _

_I thought about contacting her and telling her what she did for me. But how do you go about that? How do you just go up to someone and say 'You don't know me but the worst time of your life helped me get through the worst time of my life'? You can't, unless you want to terrify someone. So I kept my distance until I could figure out how to go about it. _

_While I have wanted to put my addiction behind me it has found a way to be a part of myself. But not in the way you would think. First, it was how I found my girlfriend. We met at a support group for addicts and instantly felt a deep connection. We've been taking things slow, but can already see that things are growing very serious between us. _

_It was also due to my addiction that I found my current job. My girlfriend's cousin is a administrator in a counseling center in Jersey and he offered me a job doing clerical work. When I explained that I hadn't even finished a full year of college he said it didn't matter, he could train me in everything. He also asked that I speak to patients there, so they can know what's it's like from someone my age who's gone through what they are dealing with. _

_Tomorrow I leave for New Jersey. And while I have tied up most of my lose ends here, there's one that remains to be dealt with. Since I'm still not sure how to tell her this in person, I've decided to write this letter in the hope that she reads it. Annie Edison, you have done more for me then I can possible express to you. You are one of the strongest, bravest individuals I have ever known. Though you didn't know it your strength and courage got me through my own hell. You saved my life, and I can never articulate how grateful I am for that. Please know that if you ever find yourself doubting your greatness, and feel you don't matter, know that there's one person who knows exactly how important you are. _

Annie put the paper down and brought a trembling hand to her face, wiping away tears. She couldn't believe what she just read. Aside from Troy she thought no one from her high school days cared about her. And here was someone who called her his 'invisible guardian angel'. It was almost overwhelming to hear.

She thought about the name, Henry Vines, and tried to place him. But she couldn't remember him at all. For the first time ever she wished she had a yearbook so she could look him up. When she saw Troy tomorrow she's have to ask him if he had a copy so she could look Henry up. Or better yet, see if he remembered who he was.

If the letter was printed today then that meant he already left for his job in New Jersey. She wished she knew all of this before he had left. While it wouldn't be impossible to look him up, somehow she knew she had missed her chance to ever speak to him in person. She wished she could tell him how moved she was by what he had written, and how grateful she was that he had beaten his addiction.

As she sat there in her dingy apartment above dildopolos it suddenly didn't matter. The crappy apartment, the non Ivy League college education. Somehow it didn't bother her at that moment. Because at that moment Annie Edison realized two things. That she was alive and healthy, and that because of her someone else was too. And in the end that was all that mattered.


End file.
